Clearly the Doctor had to mess with his own timeline so Donna Noble wouldn’t see him on TV.
http://twitter.com/#!/alannabennett AlannaBennett
Wow that bums me out.
http://twitter.com/LikoNatera Liko Natera
Who’s David Tennant?
Anonymous
He was portraying him, but yes, reading from Shakespeare.
Anonymous
I’m sorry…you’re right, I should have said, “Why did you have to post the Doctor’s sad face?”
Unless…that was a serious question. In which case GO WATCH DOCTOR WHO RIGHT NOW!!!
http://twitter.com/Juliethejarhead Julie the Jarhead
My favorite (Not!) = the creepy giant baby.
http://twitter.com/HollHox Holly Corin McClure
Quite saddened that you didn’t have a clue what Kenneth Branagh’s role
was, who he was meant to be and why. Including the mound etc. And what
the Shakespeare was about. Shame but I suppose to be expected!
http://twitter.com/FroWillis Sarah
I’m happy that I wasn’t the only one to think ‘one ring to rule’ them all during the industrial revolution part…..
Anonymous
Barcelona still holds the record for best opening ceremony ever.
I thought I heard the TARDIS sound during the ode to music. Maybe I was just hoping for a Doctor Who reference so much I imagined it…They did at least use TARDIS blue lighting!
The Doctor with the torch would have been the greatest moment in the history of Olympic opening ceremonies. Way to completely blow it. It would have been so easy to pull off too. To quote one of my favorite movie lines, “How do you f**k that up?!”.
http://twitter.com/Ursaminer Hailey Ferraro
I’ve re-watched the Queen routine a few times now with several members of my household, and we are all in agreement. The T.A.R.D.I.S. landed in the stadium. :)
Anonymous
That is a great explanation. Makes me slightly less sad that he didn’t make an appearance. I totally heard the TARDIS sound effect during the music montage though so he seems to have stopped by.
John Wao
Anyone know why there were so many rugby clips?
Anonymous
England won the Rugby world cup back in 2003. Given that as a country we still go on about the 1966 Football World cup, we like to bring up what few victories we have at every available opportunity.
Alex T
I don’t know why, but the dozens of Mary Poppines descending from the sky made me so happy.
And it was definitely topped by JK reading from Peter Pan! One of my favorite books and favorite authors in the same place! <3 I don't care if we don't win a single metal. This is still the best Olympics ever.
http://twitter.com/AbelUndercity Abel Undercity
Bearing in mind we’ve never before seen the estimable Ms. Poppins dealing with somebody truly and irredeemably naughty, I imagine she can open quite the tin of whoopass when she’s inclined.
http://twitter.com/Totz_the_Plaid Totz_the_Plaid
No mention of France’s giant baby?
Anonymous
Yes to decode : Brannagh was Brunel, the 19th Century engineer (whose father was chief engineer of New York City for a while).
The Shire isn’t far off the mark as Tolkien used that as allegory for the pre-Industrial Revolution Britain, and Mordor was the grime & destruction wrought in the name of progress.
The film director Danny Boyle created this bonkers-fest, he crossed Who-tracks early on in ’94 when he filmed Shallow Grave starred Ewan McGregor & a certain Christopher Eccleston. On a second geeknote, last year he produced a stage version of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Tardis can be heard doing it’s de/materialisation in the music montage – at the end of the Bohemian Rhapsody bit.
There *was* going to be a video montage of the 11 doctors alongside the Who theme music, but this was dropped for whatever reason (probably why Queen was glum).
Seriously? How good would that have been. Eat that Voldemort.
Annnd…in the atheletes parade, you can clearly see the entire delegation of Belarus decided to come dressed as a Sixth Doctor convention :)
http://twitter.com/eregyrn Eregyrn
To be honest, I can’t remember a single bit of Barcelona’s EXCEPT for the epic torch-lighting by archery, which DOES still hold the record for best torch-lighting ever; and the performance of the Ode to Joy, which never sucks.
But I’m not sure whether it’s fair to say that if I don’t remember other parts of the performance, it can’t count. Sure, I watched Barcelona when it was broadcast, but it’s a long time ago. The only thing I remember about LA’s is Mohammed Ali showing up, too. And square dancers, I think there were square dancers, but maybe I’m making that up. I’d like to say that there are bits of Beijing’s and Vancouver’s that I’ll be talking about for years, just as I am still talking about and looking up YouTube clips of Barcelona’s torch-lighting; but they are recent memories, after all.
http://twitter.com/confuzzledmage Sam Morris
HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS fellow fans, The Doctor and Rose are spotted admiring the flame in the crowd.
http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.milliken.7 Elizabeth Milliken
I’m fully convinced she is actually a Time Lord (it’s the only explanation for that bag really) so of course she can go all “fire and ice and rage” when so inclined.
Anonymous
One Ring forged in darkness…used to bind the others? Come on it was so blatant!
Anonymous
You heard right. My entire family flipped when we heard it.
Personally I think the Doctor showing up to take the Queen to the opening instead of Bond would have been way better.
The Doctor’s head pokes out of the Tardis. “Your majesty…RUN!”
Queen darts into the Tardis.”I liked your old face better.”
http://twitter.com/PhoenixDK PhoenixDK
Another article that points out how much I’d love you to have a UK/European writer on board! Lots of very lovely historical references, missed by a fair portion of the American-centric blogs and commentators.
But hey, we had fun in England :D
Amanda W
No David Tennant… going to go cry now.
http://profiles.google.com/quieteyes Chris Talbot
To which my added, “Can you imagine Julie Andrews as the 12th Doctor? OMG, this has to happen!”
It’s awesome thoughts like these that remind me why I love my wife so much. :-)
http://twitter.com/mynameisie Ie Dineen
I think they did the One Ring on its own for that reason. Great Britain was definitely celebrating English writers, so I think that was purposeful.
http://twitter.com/#!/alannabennett AlannaBennett
Oh, I loved all of it! It was a great opening ceremony. “Goofy” here means we had a lot of fun. (Except for the Tennant thing)
Jill Pantozzi
Holy cow! Congrats to my pal @ArkhamAsylumDoc who has her clinical dissection of #IronMan3 on the Hollywood Reporter! http://t.co/lYZtkU7o9Z